US conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren has reportedly been suspended from her talk show after saying she holds pro-choice views on abortion.

[...]

Ms Lahren said: "I'm someone that is for limited government, so I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say I'm for limited government, but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies."

You see! She stands up for liberty against the Statist stormtroopers, and so they silence her!

And they say they stand for women's rights!

Ha!:

Reports suggest her show may now be cut altogether, amid rising tensions between Ms Lahren and other Blaze employees and hosts.

[...]

The conservative network describes itself as "a platform for a new generation of authentic and unfiltered voices".

Ha! "Unfiltered"! More like STATIST, amirite?

Where the fuck is Jeff Berwick when you need him?

No seriously, is he still going on about that idiotic apocalypse bullshit? There's statist oppression of liberty going on here!

Calculated Risk - chem barometer increases in March. Strongest year-over-year gain in seven years, in fact. Seems all the factory owners wanted to celebrate the Trump victory by buying 5,000 litres of sulphuric acid, then melting stuff with it or something I guess I dunno.

When it broke above the SMA(50) (blue line) in January, that was good. +1.

Then it came down and lightly touched the SMA(50) intraday, and that generated a successful test of a breakout. +2.

Then it sailed up to the SMA(200) (red line), where it turned around at the end of February. That was the market's way of saying "don't get too hasty". That's nothing to worry about, it's basic TA trading. +2.

So then it fell quickly back down to the SMA(50) in early March. That would possibly have been worrying. +2.

But it wasn't able to crash right through the SMA(50). Nor was it able to definitively lose $1200. Those both showed strength. +3.

Then it had a decent-volume day last Wednesday where it reacted to an obvious Fed announcement by popping $15, back up to the SMA(50). That looks good, because it makes me think the early-March sellers got caught on the wrong side of the boat by betting that gold was all done. +4.

Now, in the medium term, the question is whether gold can continue upward thru $1240, triggering a positive MACD crossover in the process. If it does, it starts looking tasty again and goldbugs are happy; if it doesn't, and it instead crashes back thru the SMA(50) and down to $1200, then dumb people will start saying "OMG head and shoulders pattern!", which it isn't because a H&S is not a continuation pattern.

In the somewhat longer term, if gold gets above the SMA(200), then things will be good. And if that drags the SMA(50) above the SMA(200), then things get really good.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

I keep thinking the "China miracle" ain't gonna happen elsewhere, and that the reason there was a Chinese miracle was that they had tens of thousands of scholars who knew ten years ago what the rest of the world is only figuring out now:

In principle, cities should benefit businesses and people through increased economic density. Firms clustered in cities should be able to access a wider market of inputs and buyers, with reduced production costs thanks to scale economies. Workers should consume more diverse products and services, pay less for what they consume, and enjoy easier commutes because of proximity to their jobs. Africa’s cities feel crowded precisely because they are not dense with economic activity, infrastructure, or housing and commercial structures. ...

Typical African cities share three features that constrain urban development and create daily challenges for residents:

Crowded, not economically dense — investments in infrastructure, industrial and commercial structures have not kept pace with the concentration of people, nor have investments in affordable formal housing; congestion and its costs overwhelm the benefits of urban concentration.

Disconnected — cities have developed as collections of small and fragmented neighborhoods, lacking reliable transportation and limiting workers’ job opportunities while preventing firms from reaping scale and agglomeration benefits.

In sum, the ideal city can be viewed economically as an efficient labor market that matches employers and job seekers through connections (Bertaud 2014). The typical African city fails in this matchmaker role. A central reason for this failure — one that has not yet been sufficiently recognized — is that the city’s land use is fragmented. Its transport infrastructure is insufficient, and too much of its development occurs through expansion rather than infill. While the underlying causes of these problems are regulatory and institutional, the effects of spatial fragmentation are material: It limits urban economies. ... And without the economic density that gives rise to efficiency, Africa’s cities do not seem to increase worker productivity....

And that's why China's leadership was smart to build out their urban infrastructure ahead of time, "ghost cities" and all.